Do you want to own the Trojan Room coffee pot?

Web history for sale on eBay

The world famous coffee pot in the Trojan Room of the Computer Science Department of Cambridge University is for sale on eBay. It was going to be chucked away as the department is moving to new premises, but instead its been decided to sell this little piece of Net history.

The coffee pot was the star of the first ever Webcam way back in 1993. The pot on sale isn't the original one, but it's the longest serving, having lasted 42 months in the job. But it doesn't work now.

The story started back in 1991, when boffins in the computer department trained a digital camera on the pot (the only one in the whole seven-floor lab) and then wired up their computers with XCoffee software so they could see it from their desks - thereby saving themselves a trip if it was empty.

Then, in 1993, on a really wibbly wobbly Web they experimented with updating the image over the Internet and made history. Since then it has become a cult site with millions of viewers all over the world.

As well as the departmental move, the sellers say they're selling because "times move on and we want to buy a shiny new espresso machine because from the new building it's too far to walk to Starbucks.

"We've got through a few pots over the years, most of which we've already thrown away; the one we're selling here is by far the longest-serving which starred on the web from October 1997 until March 2001. It's a Krups ProAroma with a 10 cup jug. We'll even throw in a certificate of authenticity and can provide its 19" rack-mount hardware on request. We must warn you that the machine is broken, possibly beyond repair. It leaks water and we've cut off the mains plug. "